


Full Circle

by SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland Friendship, Background Tessa Gray/Will Herondale, By the angel, Carstairs - Freeform, Demons, Faeries - Freeform, Feels, Herondale vs ducks, Herondales - Freeform, Jace Wayland is a Herondale, Jace no, Jem and Will reunite, Jem is a shadowhunter, Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland Friendship, Magnus Bane Being Magnus Bane, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, Major character death - Freeform, Malec, Non-romance Heronstairs, POV Magnus Bane, Parabatai, Resurrection, Sacrifice, Self-Sacrifice, Shadowhunters - Freeform, Vampires, Werewolves, Will is back, Will no, clave, conclave, dream team, heronstairs, modern time, never trust a duck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-04 07:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10271381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro/pseuds/SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro
Summary: The fey have decided it was time to make their move. One faerie however, had a different idea in mind. In order for his plan to work, he had to break all the ancient rules and codes that he had been raised with -but lets face it, what else was he good at besides causing chaos and breaking rules?Resurrection as never seen before occurs in the Silent City, and of all the shadowhunters brought back, only one is fully functional: William Herondale. Magnus, responding to this call of magic in the City of Bones, finds Will and brings him to the only person who could possible keep Will roped in: James Carstairs.And now cue the faerie attacks, modern swim suits, a Herondale meeting a Herondale, and the chaos of having two Herondales in close proximity fighting a war against the world's oldest trouble makers. And let's not forget, one Herondale fresh from 1800s London and the other from modern New York.Oh, and Tessa is missing. Again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I find that 90% of all fanfictions for this series, the characters are not shadowhunters. They’re all regular mortals in high school or in a band and I know I can’t be the only one who craves fanfictions that are true to the actual books.  
> So this was born. 
> 
> This will make much more sense if you’ve read Infernal Devices, Mortal Instruments, and Lady Midnight. 
> 
> I do not own these unnaturally beautiful characters and I apologize if they’re out of character. 
> 
> Also, I saw Moana a few weeks ago and just wanted to know if anyone thought of Jace when Maoui sang “You’re Welcome”? Lol
> 
> This is double-posted by me on Fanfiction. net

Silent City:  
The darkness of the city remained unbroken, but there was something off. The silence was not the normal silence of the city. It was a deathly silence, the kind of silence that drives people to madness and sends even the most level headed of people to insanity. Something was not right. Around each corner, down each tunnel, there was no sign of life or shifting of robes, no movement whatsoever. It was a ghost town. An empty city. 

New York, Brooklyn, Magnus Bane’s apartment.

It was one of the rare mornings in Magnus’s apartment that was quiet and peaceful with no screeching children or irritable vampires or impatient werewolves. Alec was curled up against Magnus, out cold with no signs of waking up anytime soon. Magnus was awake, but perfectly content to lay there in bed besides Alec and bask in the early morning silence that was hard to find these days with two kids running around all the time. Max and Raphael were rarely ever quiet. They were okay of course, Magnus could hear them playing in their room. But they had yet to come storming in, so he thought he should take advantage of this while he could. 

It wouldn’t last. He knew that. A few minutes later, and his phone goes off. It was a text, from Robert Lightwood, the new Inquisitor. Meet us at the Silent City ASAP.   
Robert rarely ever texted Magnus. Magnus had often wondered if he even knew how to text someone, but apparently he did. With a sigh, he glanced back over to Alec, still blissfully aware of the conscious world. Not wanting to wake him, he slid out of bed carefully and scribbled a quick note, promising to return soon, before he portaled to the cemetery entrance to the Silent City. Shadowhunters were swarming the place, some looking accusingly at Magnus while others muttered nervously to each other.

“Magnus!”   
He looked in the direction the voice had come from and saw Jace making his way through the crowd. Just as golden as he was when he was 17, Magnus found himself wondering how the Herondales did it. Such a beautiful family, all of them in looks if not personality.   
“Come down, there’s all sorts of strange things going on down there.” He said, before turning and heading down into the tunnel. Magnus sighed again, and followed. “Dark magic is what we’re thinking. Faeries, probably, those bastards just don’t know when to stop.” Jace explained, holding a witchlight in his hand. At the bottom of the stairs, Robert Lightwood stood with a few other council members, all talking in hushed voices as if they didn’t want the dead to hear.

“Is there any particular reason you called me here?” Magnus asked. “I was quite comfortable in bed.”  
“Yes. Come with me.” Robert nodded, all business now and not awkward sorta-father-in-law. Clearly whatever was happening was bigger than Magnus had originally thought. Shadowhunters were known to overreact, but perhaps this was not one of those cases. Robert lead Magnus down several halls, before stopping at a door and pushing it open. And Magnus decided that this was definitely not an overreaction.

He knew this room. Sure, he was not a shadowhunter and therefore was not exactly welcome in the Silent City too often, but he knew that this was where they keep the ashes of the dead. This room was more like a giant hall, generations of shadowhunter ashes in urns from floor to ceiling. And wandering the hall like confused, sleepy puppies, were shadowhunters. Shadowhunters that should be dead. Magnus wasn’t sure of all their names, but he knew they were not supposed to be living. All of them had faded marks, their skin was pale and unhealthy looking, eyes sunken like they were ill, and their hair was stringy and falling out. Zombies. There were zombies in the silent city. 

“Necromancy is a serious crime. It’s bad enough we had a necromancer in LA, now we have one here and it’s bringing back the dead from hundreds of years ago. Do you think Malcolm may have survived?” Robert asked as Magnus took a step into the hall.   
“No, this was no warlock. This is dark magic for sure, but if a warlock had done this so close to New York, I would’ve known. Even if the Silent City isn’t technically in New York.” Magnus shook his head, looking back to Robert. How had someone managed to do this? It took a lot of power to bring even one person back from the dead, but all of these people? Even if they were like the shells of people, there were a lot of them. 

“Magnus Bane?” A hoarse voice spoke up, and Magnus turned back to the undead that filled the hall. He had to do a double take when he saw it. In front of them stood a tall boy, his hair messy and black and his eyes a stormy blue, a British accent slipping unmistakably through the hoarseness of a voice that hadn’t been used in hundreds of years.  
“Alec?” Robert looked hopelessly confused. Magnus snapped his fingers and Robert froze, for the moment unable to see or hear what was going on.   
“William Herondale. This may be a problem.”  
“What are you wearing?” Will tilted his head, running his fingers through his hair. “Who is he? Who’s Alex? And all these people-”  
“Stop asking questions for a second, and answer a few.” Magnus interrupted. He took Will’s silence as the okay to keep going.

“How long have you been down here?”  
“I don’t know. I’ve been walking around for a while. An hour maybe? Is this the Silent City?” Will rubbed his temples, suddenly seeming pained. “No...no, what am I doing here Magnus? I..I’m dead, aren’t I? I married Tessa, we had children, and I got old and I died. Was that all a dream?”  
“No, no it wasn’t a dream.” Magnus walked forward and put his hands on Will to steady him. He looked like he was about to fall over. “Sit. When you woke up, or started walking around here, did you see anyone besides the zombie shadowhunters?”

Will leaned on the wall and slid down so he was sitting. “No. I just woke up on the floor and started walking around and then spotted you. Which leads me to my original question: What are you wearing?” He looked at Magnus with his expression so vulnerably lost that Magnus remembered when Will had come to him all those years ago, raging about a curse and a demon and begging for help in looking for a cure for his Parabatai’s illness. Jem. Jem would want to see Will again. Tessa would too, for that matter. But where was she? 

“It’s called a suit, Will, they aren’t that new.”  
“It’s so sparkly.”   
“Just...sit there and pretend to be like the others until I figure out what to do with you.”   
Will nodded, and laid down instead of sitting, closing his eyes. Magnus could only imagine the headache he must have. 

Magnus unfroze Robert and made sure he wiped the memory of a boy like Alec being in the tunnel. “I’m not sure what happened here, but I will look into it. I have ties all over, people who owe me favors. For now...make sure word about this doesn’t get out.”   
Robert nodded. “I hadn’t planned on it.”   
“The others are probably looking for you. You go take care of them, I’m going to try to get some samples of the magic here and try to figure out who caused it.”  
Robert nodded again, eyes glazing over as Magnus charmed him enough to avoid any arguments. The Shadowhunter turned and walked away, and Magnus turned back to Will, who was still laying on the ground. 

“Get up.You’re coming with me.” Magnus told him. Will sat back up and pushed himself to his feet. The last time Magnus had seen Will, he had been gray and wrinkled, stiff and not as quick as he had once been. Now, he looked like the young lad who had wandered into Magnus’s life in the mid 1800s. Magnus opened a portal right there, working quickly. Since it was such a short distance, it wasn’t too hard to make it.   
“Uh, is that thing safe-”  
Magnus dragged him through it before Will could even finish his sentence. 

 

In the flat, Magnus was reminded even more of how things were in London during Will’s days. For example, they didn’t have light switches in the Institute. Will had quite obviously never used a light switch, as he was completely fascinated with one now. Then he flipped the switch for the food processor in the sink, and nearly jumped out of his skin.   
“What demon makes a sound like that when a switch is flipped?” He exclaimed.   
“Not a demon. A sink. Please sit down and be quiet so I can figure out what's happening.”  
Will ignored him in true Herondale fashion and wandered over to the next new thing. The TV remote. “Whats this?”  
Before Magnus could answer, Will pressed the power button and the TV turned on. It was some old western movie, in black and white. “Whoa...How do those people get in that box? And what happened to the color? Is it another dimension?”  
“It’s a television, now if you would stop touching things-”  
“Does this open another dimension?” Will picked up a different remote.  
“No, but don’t-”  
Will pressed the button and music blasted from the speakers. Will jumped and threw it at Magnus. 

And because this wasn’t bad enough, Alec came into the room. His hair was wet and he was in just a towel, obviously having not expected company. Magnus turned off the radio and snapped his fingers and suddenly Alec was dressed in one of Magnus’s glittering outfits.   
Will and Alec looked at each other, obviously confused. Magnus cringed and thought about the movies of time travel and how it screws everything up. But this wasn’t exactly time travel, was it?

“So Magnus...you wanna explain?” Alec asked, looking warily at Will.   
“If you’ll both sit down, I would love to explain.” Magnus stated, turning off the TV and gesturing to the couch. Alec sat in the recliner chair while Will took the couch.  
“Alec, where are the kids?”  
“Kids?” Will tilted his head. Magnus ignored him.  
“Clary came and took them. She’s going to Central Park today with Jace because he’s going stir crazy with how quiet it’s been lately. She figures chasing Max and Raphael around for a bit might help.”

Magnus nodded, and sat on the coffee table facing the two.   
“First off, Alec, no one is to know about this yet. Not Jace, not Clary, not even the kids yet. This was completely unplanned.” He said, and Alec nodded, but looked suspicious of Will still. The warlock turned to Will. “And you will behave and not leave this flat, got it?”  
“You’re going to hold me against my Will? In this strange world I have been unfairly thrown into? I call cruelty, warlock. I believe that goes against those rules they made for Downworlders.”  
Magnus knew that was an entirely empty threat, just as it would’ve been empty back then too. Will was nothing if not a sarcastic bastard. He took a deep breath. 

“Alec, this is William Herondale. Will, this is Alexander Lightwood.  
Both black-haired-blue-eyed men blinked, and then looked back to each other. Will spoke first.  
“Well it’s good to know my sister’s genes were passed on and still show. Gabriel was an ugly piece of work.”  
“Shouldn’t you be dead?” Alec asked.   
“Well that’s rude, but technically yes.” Will nodded, taking the question in stride.   
“Magnus?” Alec raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. 

And so Magnus explained how he had been called to the Silent City and the chaos that was happening there, Robert showing him the undead Shadowhunters and how Will had been the only one who seemed coherent enough to interact and talk and remember things. Then he looked back towards Will.  
“I want to keep you here for a night at least. To make sure you really are back. Then I’ll bring you to Los Angeles, because there’s someone there who can help you get situated a little better until we figure out what's going on.”

The day was then filled with Alec and Magnus trying to Will-proof the flat. It was like having an extra toddler running around. So much stuff was new to him and it didn’t take very much to amaze him. Ovens (“Will, put an oven mitt on!”) , toasters (“No, Will, don’t use a fork to take things from the toaster!”), microwave (“No tin foil in the microwave!”) and the plumbing. While the Institute in London did have some plumbing in Will’s day, it wasn’t nearly as advanced. Hot water that didn’t have to be heated over a fire? A toilet that has two different flushes, depending on what was done? And then Max and Raphael had come home. Will had thankfully not been in the room, and Clary and Jace seemed to be in a rush to leave. Will’s reaction to seeing a warlock child hug a Shadowhunter and call him ‘dad’ had been priceless. Magnus had gotten a picture of it too, and almost wanted to get it framed. The kids had shown Will their phones, but he simply couldn’t grasp the concept of it. Finally, Alec went to put them to bed and Will sat on the couch, looking exhausted. 

“Henry would’ve loved this.” He said, looking at Magnus. “But his ashes didn’t appear to be bothered. Why was I brought back, but not Henry or Charlotte or any of the others?”  
“I don’t know, Will. But you’ll be the first to know when I do.” Magnus sighed. “You can crash on the couch tonight.” Magnus tossed him a pillow and some blankets from the closet in the hall. Will laid down, head on the pillow and the blanket over him, and had passed out within minutes. Magnus sighed again, watching him as Alec came up behind him and put a hand on his back comfortingly. 

“I want to bring him to Jem so badly, but I have no idea how he’ll react. And no idea if Will will still be alive like this in the morning.”  
“If I were Jem and Will was Jace, I would want to know if he’s back no matter what.” Alec said after a few seconds. “Though a warning would be a good idea.”  
“Alec, I’ve been around for a long time. I’ve seen parabatai a lot, some that aren’t very close and some that are so close it’s as if they share a soul or were carved from the same stone. Jem and Will might well have been the closest pair of parabatai I’ve ever met, and I barely knew him. They loved each other enough to not be angry and jealous when they realized they both loved the same girl. There bond is what kept Jem from becoming like all the other Silent Brothers. I’m sure that even if I didn’t bring Will to Jem, they would find their way to each other again anyway.”

 

The next morning, Magnus was woken up to the sound of a crash in the kitchen. Him and Alec both leapt out of bed and hurried out, thinking maybe Max or Raphael had pulled something down on themselves, only to find a startled looking Will standing in front of a mess of pots and pans.   
“I was trying to find a tea pot.” He said as explanation. “But your pots and pans attacked me instead.”

Magnus face palmed, snapped his fingers, and a cup of hot tea from the shop around the block appeared on the counter. “There, now you have tea. Now please, go sit on the couch and stay there. Alec, do you have Emma’s phone number?”  
“Yeah, I think so.” Alec pulled out his phone and flipped through the contacts before finding Emma Carstairs and handing the phone to Magnus, who pressed the call button. 

“Hello?” Came the reply.   
“Emma? Is your uncle there?”  
“Jem? Yeah, he’s still asleep I think. He wasn’t feeling well yesterday. Need to talk to him?”  
“No, but go wake him up and tell him to sit down somewhere. I have a delivery for him. Also, I’ll take care of dinner for everyone there tonight. There’s gonna be an extra mouth to feed.”


	2. Chapter 2

Los Angeles Institute, California 

Jem had been sleeping peacefully when Emma came and woke him up. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little annoyed, since he had never been a very sound sleeper and had felt so off yesterday. He couldn’t explain exactly how he had felt, only that it wasn’t normal. There was pain mostly on his throat, near the faded parabatai rune. He yawned and sat up as Emma left, running his fingers through his hair. He wasn’t staying at the Institute for long, he was just visiting. Tessa had to do go so something with the Iron Sisters and Jem couldn’t go with her, so he had decided to come spend some time in LA with Emma and her large family. Julian seemed the most relieved by it, since Jem was able to keep the younger children busy with his stories. 

The population in the Institute had gone back down for a little while. Diego had gone to Idris for a while, making a report on what happened with Malcolm Fade and the going ons of the LA Institute. Diana had gone off in search of another trainer for the kids. Today Christina was taking Mark on a patrol, trying to bring the Shadowhunter training back out from the half-faerie boy. Where the younger children and Julian were, Jem didn’t know. Church, who was curled up on Jem’s feet, made a meow of protest as Jem moved and climbed out of the bed. What could Magnus possibly want that couldn’t wait? It had been quiet here since Malcolm’s death. Or at least quiet considering there was a bunch of kids running around with their half-faerie brother who had recently returned from The Wild Hunt and a new shadowhunter who had no idea he was a shadowhunter until a few weeks ago. And that new shadowhunter just so happen to be a Herondale. 

Jem got dressed and splashed some water on his face from the sink in the little bathroom attached to his room before heading out to the hall where Emma was waiting. “Magnus told me to make sure you’re sitting down. So I figured the sitting room is appropriate. Plus, it’s empty and I clean.” She said, and lead him quietly down the halls and into the room. Jem sat on one of the couches, sighing and closing his eyes. He just felt so weird. He couldn’t put a finger on it or even say if it was a good feeling or a bad one. He just felt strange. 

“Did Magnus tell you what this is about?” he asked.  
“No, just that he has something to deliver to you and would be here in a few minutes.”

It was at that moment that a sudden blinding pain exploded over his parabatai rune, and he gasped and threw a hand over the rune, Emma staring at the rune with a shocked expression. When Jem pulled his hand away, there was blood on his fingers. Not a lot, but still blood? What was going on?

“Can you tell me whats going on now? I was enjoying that tea! And I really hate those moving door things-”  
“Portals. They’re called Portals.” 

Jem paused, forgetting the burning on his throat. He knew that voice. Magnus was one, obviously, but the other voice, the one that spoke first. The accent, the tone, all of it was as familiar as his own voice, as Tessa’s voice. But no, it wasn’t possible. He must have a fever, perhaps his old runes are burning away now that they haven’t been used in over a century. 

“I don’t care what they’re called-”  
The voice was closer, then it paused. Jem’s rune stung, almost as much as it had when he first got it.   
“Will?” He couldn’t bring his voice over a whisper, but was afraid to turn around. Emma was looking at something behind him, looking confused but not saying anything.   
“Jem?”

 

Jem turned around, and standing there in the doorway in front of Magnus Bane was a man with black hair, stormy blue eyes, and wearing old Shadowhunter gear from Jem’s youth. Maybe Jem was dying, and Will was here to bring him across the bridge? Maybe he was hallucinating. The two stared at each other, as if both trying to figure out if the other was real. 

“Oh, c’mon, go!” Magnus complained, pushing Will forward. “He’s real!”   
Jem wasn’t sure when exactly he moved, but soon he was off the couch and crossing the room, Will coming towards him and then they were hugging. Jem was shaking, and he was pretty sure Will might be shaking too. His knees felt weak, but he stayed on his feet.   
“Will, how?”  
“You’re guess is as good as mine.” Will broke off first, holding Jem as arms length as if he had to assure himself that it really was Jem. They both had tears in his their eyes. “Bloody hell, Jem, you look like you did when we first met, but healthier. Your hair is the right color again. And your eyes.”  
“And you don’t look like a 300 year old corpse.” 

Will laughed, a sound Jem hadn’t heard in so long but that sounded so right.   
“Well, as much as I would love to watch you two gush about each other for the next few hours, there are some important things going on that I must discuss with everyone. Emma, go find Julian. You’ll have to catch Diana and the others up, because this can’t exactly wait.” Magnus instructed. Emma nodded and ran off to find her parabatai.

“So who’s that?” Will asked, watching her leave.   
“That’s Emma Carstairs. My...cousin, I guess.” Jem answered. Even though she called him Uncle, he wasn’t technically her uncle since she was more directly related to Jem’s Uncle than Jem himself. Jem never did really have the patience to look over the family trees and figure it all out.  
“Wow. She looks nothing like you.” Will commented.  
“You should see your descendants. Jace acts just like you, but looks completely different. All gold. His parabatai and his parabatai’s sister look just like you and Cecily. When I first saw Alec after I was cured…” Jem shook his head. It had been hard to look at Alec and Isabelle at first, because they had looked so much like Will. 

Emma came back with Julian in tow, and had obviously explained a little of what had happened to him on the way back. He still looked bewildered by it, but took it in stride and introduced himself the way he had always been told to do so. After the introductions were done, Magnus had everyone sit around the couches. 

“This morning I already explained to Will what had happened here the past few weeks with Malcolm Fade, and the current feud between the faeries and everyone else. So I’ll tell you what's been going on in other places.” Magnus explained. “Early yesterday morning I got a call to meet Robert Lightwood in the Silent City. There had been an attack there during the night. When I got there, Robert showed me to the tombs.”  
“Did any of the Brothers survive?” Jem interrupted. Even though he was no longer a Silent Brother, he still felt the strange sort of kinship with them. They had been the only steady thing in any shadowhunter’s life, technically. He had lived among them for so long, learned that despite their monotone personalities that they showed most of the Shadowhunters, many still had a little personality and emotion in them. Some of them still remembered.   
“We don’t know. All the Brothers that were in the city at the time of the attack are missing. But anyway, Robert showed me to the tombs, and that's where things got really weird. Some of the past shadowhunters were alive again. That’s where I found Will.”

“Who else was alive?” Emma asked, obviously thinking of her parents.   
“It appeared to be all older shadowhunters. As in, a few generations back. I’m not sure why only some of the came back, but I can tell you that there was a lot of dark magic around it. And it wasn’t a warlock’s magic.”  
“So it was faeries.” Jem said, frowning.   
“Most likely. I have no evidence yet, and I’m still looking into it. But there will be a meeting tomorrow in the New York Institute, since that’s the closest one to where the attack happened. I’ll open a portal around noon tomorrow to bring everyone over.” Magnus said. “But what was really strange about this whole thing was that most of the undead shadowhunters were more like zombies than living humans again. Will was the only one coherent enough to speak and register what was happening.”  
“Could it be because of me?” Jem asked, a hand reaching up to rub at his parabatai rune. “Yesterday morning the rune started feeling strange. Today when he walked in, it burned and bled a little. If the shadowhunters that were brought back are from generations ago, it’s likely if they had parabatai, the other half would be dead.”

“It could be.” Magnus mused, having not realized that connection earlier. It had simply been too crazy the past 24 hours to really put much thought into that possibility. “I’ll have more information tomorrow at the meeting. For now…” He looked at the four shadowhunters in the room.   
“Well, for now, Jem you should probably get Will acquainted with the modern world. He hasn’t been outside yet, and fashion has certainly come a long way. And for Heaven’s sake, please find something other than that musty old gear before tomorrow.”

Jem nodded and Magnus got up to leave, but then remembered something. “Magnus, wait.”  
The warlock stopped and waited.   
“The Iron Sisters. Have they been taken too?”  
“I’m not sure. Why?”  
“Tessa had something she had to take care with them.”   
“I’ll see if I can find something and I’ll get back to you before dinner. You’ll know as soon as I do.” Magnus promised, and Jem nodded as the warlock turned and left. 

“How’s Tessa been doing?” Will asked Jem.   
“She’s been good. We’ve been tracking down some of your descendants. One of them is here somewhere.” Jem went on to explain about Tobias Herondale, and how Catarina had taken the baby in before it could be killed and how the family tree had continued on without knowing they were Shadowhunters. He explained how when they first found Kit, he had been fighting Mantis demons with a wooden chair. He told Will about the Mortal War and about Jace. At some point, Emma and Julian had left the room, but neither Jem nor Will seemed to notice. 

“Of course Herondales are the best, I brought them back.” Will scoffed. Jem rolled his eyes. Same old Will, even centuries later.   
“So Will...Technically, you married Tessa first. When she comes back-”  
“Stop right there, James Carstairs.” Will scolded. “I had my lifetime with her, and you waited 300 years for yours. My time will Tessa was amazing, but now it’s your turn for a lifetime with her. But if you guys have kids, I get to be the godfather and the uncle. I want to be both.”   
Jem smiled. “Deal. Now lets get you into something a little less….1800s.” He stood up and lead Will through the halls to the room where they kept spare gear and weapons. Will went to the weapons almost as soon as they stepped in the room, admiring some of the newer blades while Jem looked for gear in Will’s size. They would have to just go with gear for now, until he could find regular clothes for him.

“Do you still have your staff?” Will asked.   
“Yes.” Jem nodded. “And the knife I gave you that you buried by the tree. Tessa had found it years ago, and I finally let her put it back with my things. My violin is here too, in the library. It hasn’t been played in years. I think the last time it was played was when you d-..” He stopped, unable to say the word. Will knew what he meant, and went over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.   
“You bastard, you made me die with tears in my eyes and I remember thinking, and I’m quoting, ‘damn you, James Carstairs, you’ve made me go soft!’.”  
Jem grinned, glancing at Will. “Try this on. I’ll be in the hall.” He shoved some gear at Will before slipping out into the hallway to wait for his friend to get changed. Of course, it wasn’t as if they haven’t gotten dressed in the same room before. Hell, how many times had Jem had an episode and woken up to find that Will had taken Jem out of his gear or whatever he had been wearing and put him in his night clothes? 

Will came out wearing the modern black gear that actually appeared to be a little big on him. “This gear is so much more comfortable than the old stuff. It’s less...constricting in certain areas.”  
“These are different times, Will. Just wait until you see the beach.” Jem remembered his first time coming here with Tessa and seeing people on the beach in tiny bikinis and speedos and swim trunks. He had nearly had a heart attack, what were all those people doing?! Tessa had found his reaction hysterical, and after he had gotten used to seeing people on beaches, he had thought his reaction to be funny as well. When she had tried to get him to go swimming with her though, they had decided it was much more fun when they were alone and not wearing swimsuits. 

As the two turned to continue down the hall, Church came out from one of the rooms, meowing loudly as he waves his bushy tail around above him.  
“Is that the same cat?” Will asked, looking from Church to Jem. Jem bent down and scooped the cat up. Church purred and half closed his eyes.   
“Yep. He somehow ended up in the New York Institute. When I was cured, I found him and may have taken him back to LA with me.” Jem looked sheepish. He had stolen his cat back from the New York Institute without telling them, but it was technically his cat in the first place.   
“Bloody cat.” Will grumbled. “The spiteful ones always live the longest. Maybe that’s why cats have nine lives.”

The rest of the day consisted of Jem showing Will the LA Institute, introducing him to the Blackthorns, and more bits of modern technology. They couldn’t find Kit, though they honestly weren’t looking very hard. After dinner, the two wandered back upstairs so Jem could show Will the Library. He was sure there would be new books that Will would want to read. Jem had never had the patience to read a book, but Will loved to read. 

 

It was in the Library that Emma found them that night. There was a book in Will’s hand, and they were on the couch. Jem was sitting, his head back and leaning slightly to the side, while Will had his head on Jem’s lap. Both were passed out, a book hanging out of Will’s hand and a peaceful look on Jem’s face. Emma knew Jem was not a sound sleeper, but he seemed more content with Will with him. She wondered how this was going to work, what the Clave would say about Will being back, and when Magnus would return with news about Tessa. He had said by dinner, but Alec had sent Emma a text saying he and Magnus were still working on figuring it out. There was still no word on the Iron Sisters. Emma had the feeling that something huge was building up, and that they were all about to be sucked into it, whether they wanted it or not.


	3. Chapter 3

Jem decided the best time to introduce Will to the beach was in the morning, before it got too crowded. Besides, he was awake before dawn anyway and why not drag Will with him to watch the sun rise? So he shook him awake and dragged him outside. 

“How are you always so awake in the mornings? The sun isn’t even up yet!” Will complained, rubbing his eyes and grumbling. 

“I’m not a good sleeper and you know that.” Jem made his way down to the sand, walking a few steps ahead of Will. He had his cane with him and used it to help him balance as he slid down a hill. It still worked as well as it had when he first got it. 

“Yes, but you rarely woke me up at the crack of dawn back then.”

“Most of the time you were already awake or just coming back in. Or I had my violin.”

 

The two walked along the water for a while, mostly in silence. Until…

“Blood hell, Jem cover your eyes!” 

Jem stumbled back as Will’s hand flew up and covered his eyes. 

“Will, what on earth-”

“She’s not wearing clothes! Well, she is, but not enough! By the Angel, James, is this some outdoor brothel?” 

Jem laughed and pried Will’s hand off his face, only to see he was using his other hand to block his own eyes. “That's just how people dress to go swimming, Will.”

“Savages!”

“Look who's talking.” Jem snorted, and pulled Will’s hand down. “We should head back to the Institute now anyway and get ready to go to New York.”

  
  


Back at the Institute, it seemed everyone else had woken up and were in the kitchen. There was a new addition to the table now, that Will hadn’t met yet. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, who seemed to be glaring at almost everyone at the table and had the bitter look of someone who didn’t want to be there. 

“Ah, Will. There’s Kit. Your nephew? Cousin? I do hate family trees, they’re awfully confusing.” Jem said quietly, gesturing to the blonde. 

“He doesn’t look happy to be here.”

“He’s in denial. You have a very dramatic bloodline, William.” Jem shrugged and continued into the kitchen, Will following behind him. 

“Want some coffee?” Emma offered them without looking up. She was helping Julian clean a spill of what looked like cereal with blue milk.

 

“Coffee?” Will had never had coffee. He had always preferred tea, despite the fact that there were coffee shops in London in his day. He had just never had any interest in it.

“Absolutely not. Will, you will _ not  _ have coffee if I can prevent it.” Jem gave him a warning glare, which only made Will more curious.

“And why not, mother dearest?” He asked innocently. By now the rest of the people in the room were watching, as if this were a sport contest. 

“Because you’re bad enough without the extra caffeine.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “I will have coffee one day. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day,” He paused for dramatic effect, “I  _ will _ have coffee.” 

 

“We should be leaving soon anyway.” Emma said, changing the subject. “Magnus called. He said they moved the time to earlier, but wouldn’t tell me why. I heard Alec in the background talking about Dayquil though.”

“Day quil?” Will looked at Jem for an answer.

“It’s medicine for when you’re sick, but you have too much to do and need to stay awake for it.” Jem explained. “They also have it for night, and it works pretty good.”

“You’ve tried it? Mundane medicine?”

“Yeah. I had a bad head cold last year and Tessa insisted I take some. I’ve never slept through the night like that.” Jem frowned. “I didn’t like it much.” He looked back to Emma. “Did he say anything about Tessa?”

“No, nothing.”

 

Jem and Will shared a look. 

  
  


About an hour later those going to New York were waiting for the portal to open. It consisted of Jem and Will, Emma, Julian, and Mark. The other Blackthorns would be staying in LA with Christina. The portal opened up and they all stepped through, Will landing ungracefully on his rear while everyone else didn’t seem to have an problems. They were right outside the New York Institute, looking up at the massive building. 

“I hate those things.” Will scowled as Jem helped him up. “None of Henry’s inventions work for me. They all blow things up. Remember when they set the theater on fire, instead of summoning our backup like they were supposed to? We all nearly burned alive! Not to mention made De Quincy want us dead more than he already had.”

“There have been a lot of changes to portals since Henry’s first idea, Will. They aren’t so bad.” Jem rolled his eyes. 

 

“Just a heads up,” Alec spoke up, once everyone had come through, “Jace is sick and being super dramatic about it. He doesn’t get sick often, but when he does, it’s like the world is falling apart and his main goal is make sure everyone knows how horrible he feels. It’s best to just ignore him.”

“Sounds like another Herondale I know.” Jem looked at Will.

“I object.” Will humphed. “I am anything but dramatic.”

“Right. You’re  _ over  _ dramatic.” And before Will had a chance to argue, Magnus and Alec herded everyone to the sitting room.

 

“Magnus, have you heard anything about Tessa?” Jem asked the walked. The longer he went without news of her, the more nervous he became. 

“She isn’t dead.” Magnus said, but that was all. Jem frowned, and paused waiting for Will to catch up. As they got closer, they could hear the sounds of a debate going on.

 

“That isn’t a thing, Clary. It’s a myth.” Jem recognized that as Jace’s voice.

“No it’s not. It’s right here in the book!”

“A book written how long ago? Demon pox isn’t real.”

“If you would just look at this-”

“My head hurts, I’m not reading anything.”

 

Magnus entered the room first, following by the others. Jace was curled up on a fluffy recliner chair, nose red while the rest of him was paler than normal, in black sweatpants and a hoodie that looked suspiciously like one of Alec’s. A bottle of dayquil was on the table. Sitting on the couch across from him was Clary, wearing a green shirt and jeans that had paint on them and Isabelle, who was wearing her gear with large heels. Isabelle looked disinterested while Clary held a book up and pointed at an article, glaring at Jace. “It’s right there-”

“Is that my hoodie?” Alec asked as he spotted Jace. 

“Yes. All mine are in the wash. I puked on the last clean one I had this morning.”

Alec made a face. “Please refrain from puking on that one. Or any of my things, for that matter.”

“I can’t promise that, but I’ll try.” Jace said, before breaking into a congested coughing fit. “Can we get this over with so I can take a sh*t ton of Nyquil and sleep this thing off?”

 

“Magnus, tell Jace that demon pox is a thing. He doesn’t believe it is.”

“It is!” Will spoke up before Magnus could, and the others looked at him, seeing confused to see someone who looked so much like Alec, but spoke with a British accent. “I thought it was settled years ago that I was right! Demon pox is real, and the Lightworms proved it!”

“Lightworms?” Isabelle asked, glaring at Will. 

Jem groaned. “Will, please don’t. Don’t start again, we just got here.”

Will ignored him. “Yes, the Lightworms. The one thing that Benedict Lightwood did right was prove me right. Served him right-”

“ _ William. _ ” Jem put a hand over Will’s mouth before he could insult the Lightwoods any further. They were already glaring daggers at him. 

 

“Who are you, anyway?” Isabelle asked, not very nicely either. 

Jem made the introductions. “Everyone, this is William Herondale. Please ignore his lack of manners, he never did have many. I think we should all consider ourselves lucky that he’s house trained. Will, this is Isabelle and Alec Light _ wood,  _ Clary Fairchild, and Jace Herondale.” Jem removed his hand from Will’s hand. 

“My own descendant doesn’t believe in Demon pox?” Will looked devastated. “Where did I go wrong, Jem? Can I disown him?”

“For the love of the Angel, Will…” Jem ran his hand over his face. He looked up at the others. “Please excuse whatever comes out of his mouth. He doesn’t think before speaking. Or acting, for that matter.” 

 

“I worked hard on that song, James. I worked hard to prove it was a real thing. That was supposed to be my legacy.”

“Your legacy was you didn’t follow even half the laws you were supposed and all your children were as stubborn and dramatic as you were.” Jem corrected. “And stealing the Lightwood’s carriage. You did that a lot too.”

“To be fair, my sister was married to him.”

 

“Can we move on?” Magnus asked impatiently. “We have much more serious matters at hand other than the existence of Demon pox -which does exist- and Herondale legacies.”

“Yes, lets get started.” Alec said, moving further into the room and sitting on the arm of the chair Jace was on. Jace leaned back on him, closing his eyes as if the light in the room was hurting him. “All you hoodies suck, Alec. They’re all worn down and not soft enough.”

“Shut up, Jace.”

 

“No offence, but shouldn’t you be dead?” Clary asked Will.

“I can’t see how that can be taken as non offensive.” Will crossed his arms.

“If you nephilim would sit down, I will explain!” Magnus snapped. 

“Since when do we listen to down-”

“ _ Will, sit _ .” Jem forced Will onto a chair. “And  _ stop talking.” _

 

“As I was saying…” Magnus glared at Will. Sometimes it was hard to remember what he had liked about the shadowhunter back then. He began to explain what had happened in the Silent City, with the brothers going missing and dead shadowhunters being brought back. He also explained the theory that Jem had come up with, that Will was still so alive because his parabatai was still living, and gestured to the parabatai runes on Will and Jem. The runes had gotten darker, looking fresher now than when the New York Institute had last seen Jem. 

 

Finally, Magnus sighed, and looked at Jem and Will. “I asked Catarina to check in on the Iron Sister. Men aren’t allowed in their city, as you all know. Catarina came back this morning with news. The city is empty. She can’t find any traces of the Iron Sisters but she says dark magic has definitely been there. Not warlock magic. The Clave is investigating now.”

“And Tessa?” Jem asked, worried. 

Magnus shook his head. “No sign of her anywhere. Catarina searched, she tried tracking spells and everything. There is no sign of Tessa anywhere. I’m sorry.”

 

Jem and Will looked devastated. Once again, Tessa was taken from them both. The only difference was now Jem was not bedridden and they had a little more help than they had last time.

 

“But there’s no reason for us to believe she’s dead, either.” Magnus continued. “In both cities, there have been no signs of blood. The magic is not from warlocks, and I believe we can safely say it’s faeries. It’s very possible that they’re holding the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters hostage.”

“Tessa isn’t an Iron Sister though. She’s a warlock.” Jem pointed out.

“Yes, but she works with them just the same. The Fey know how important she is to the Nephilim. They aren’t stupid people, they may try to bargain and trade her back.”

 

“Or they could use her powers against the rest of us or even herself, like the Black Sisters did!” Will stood and began to pace.

“The Black Sisters were working for Mortman.” Magnus pointed out. 

“Yeah, and we saw how well that worked out.” Will snorted, gesturing to Jem. 

“They only had her for a little while. Then you and Henry got her out. It worked out fine.” Jem said.

“Worked out fine?!” Will looked at Jem in disbelief. “Henry became paralyzed, you almost died if those Silent Brother runes didn’t work-”

“And you married Tessa, Charlotte had the baby, your sister and Gabriel got married and I was still able to go visit you and Tessa. This won’t be the same as last time, Will.” Jem interrupted. “This time I’ll be with you for the battle that ends this.”

 

Will didn’t look entirely convinced, but he stopped arguing.  

“I have connections in the Seelie Court, though one has gone quiet. The last message from him sounded as though he would be disappearing for a while though, so I don’t believe he’s been killed. I’ve already sent out messages to try to find out if they know anything. I’ve pulled a few favors from them as well.”

“Mark might able to get some help too. Keiran of the Hunt might be willing to help him.” Julian spoke up, though he didn’t sound too sure. 

 

“Is there anything else we could really do until we get more information?” Clary asked. “Besides being extra vigilant and warning other shadowhunters and downworlders?”

“No, not really.” Jace shook his head, then winced as if it made his head hurt. “Since we’ve established a whole lot of nothing, can I go back to bed?”

The other shadowhunters looked around at each other, to see if anyone had anything else to add.

 

“Can I have my hoodie back?” Alec asked, looking down as his parabatai. 

“Only if you get mine out of the dryer. I’m freezing.” 

Alec rolled his eyes, but got up. “Come on, then.” Jace got up and walked after him, swaying a little bit when he first got to his feet. Soon they were out of the doorway and down the hall.

“I’m going back to my apartment  to see what I can find. I’ll open a portal up for you all to return to LA later. Or Clary can do it.” Magnus said, and walked off.

  
  


“There is a training room here, correct?” Will asked. 

“Of course. Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Because Americans are weird. I would know, I married one in the 1800s.” 

Jem rolled his eyes, but didn’t comment. 

“It’s this way.” Clary said, and got up, leading the way down the hall. Will followed and Jem, knowing that leaving Will alone anywhere was bound to cause trouble, followed. Emma, Julian, and Isabelle followed, all a bit curious to see if Will was as skilled as Jace was, or if it was simply the angel blood that made Jace as good as he was. 

 

The training room was huge. Beams, ropes, weapons, targets, and a slightly padded floor to prevent any super serious injuries and several obstacles off to the side.

“Why wasn’t our training room this big?” Will complained to Jem.

“Lack of funding? Lack of shadowhunters needing training? We were the only two there pretty much, and never officially finished the training.” Jem shrugged and watched as Will picked up one of the throwing knives, testing the weight before throwing it at the target. He hit the ring around the center.

“That was a warm up.” He defended. 

 

Jem smirked, picked up another knife, and flicked it toward the target. It hit the center, vibrating where it stuck. “That was not a warm up.”

“Show off.” Will grumbled, and threw another one. This one hit maybe a half inch closer.

“You’re flicking your wrist too much.” Jem said, and went to the other side of Will, picking up a knife as he passed. “It’s a small flick.” He demonstrated, but didn’t let the knife go. 

“Give me that.” Will pulled it from Jem’s hand and did as Jem had showed him. It still did not hit the center. 

“And you’re standing too stiffly. Spread your legs a little more, stand sideways, and step forward..” Jem demonstrated again, standing as though he was about to throw a frisbee. He brought the knife around his body, flicking his wrist as it came forward and letting go of the knife. The foot that was further back came forward as he let go of the hilt. The knife hit the center of the next target. Will picked up another knife and tried again, carefully mimicking his parabatai’s movements. And it hit the lower part of the center. 

“There!” Jem smiled. “But I’m still the better shot.” 

“Bloody bastard is what you are.” Will grumbled, but he was grinning. This felt good, to be training again besides Jem, even if they were both past the training age. 

 

“Hey, since I doubt we’ll be able to just throw knives at faeries, why don’t you both pick up a sword and try me and Jules?” Emma challenged.

“Jules and I.” Julian corrected. “Well...Emma and I, in my case.” 

Emma rolled her eyes, and tossed Julian a sword. It was not his preferred weapon, but he could use it well enough. 

 

Jem and Will exchanged a look, and decided they might as well give it a shot. Jem would rather use his cane, but he didn’t have it with him at the moment so he followed Will to the weapons room and looked for a sword that fit right. They would use training swords, as would Julian and Emma, for now at least. Once the four were armed, they went out to the center of the room. By now Alec had come in and joined Isabelle and Clary on the sidelines. 

 

“Just because you’re family Emma, doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you.” Jem warned.

“I wouldn’t want you to, you’re already 300 years old. It can’t be that hard to unarm an old man.” Emma stated, grinning a challenge. Then they moved. Will and Jem moved first, quick and as one. Julian blocked Will, but Will was bigger and was able to use this to his advantage, pushing Julian back. Emma was fast, but Jem was more experienced and agile. He managed to slap the flat of his blade against Emma’s shoulder, slipping behind her before she could hit him. 

 

“Is Jace okay?” Clary asked Alec as she watched the four fighting in the middle of the room.

“Yeah. He’s being a big baby about it, but I gave him a few runes and he fell asleep before I even left the room. He’ll be fine in a few hours.” Alec shrugged, but most of his attention was on the pairs of parabatai in the center of the room. Had he and Jace ever managed to be so in sync? Well, Jem and Will seemed to be moving together as if they shared the same brain. Emma and Julian were back to back, but didn’t move with the same kind of rhythm that the older shadowhunters did. When was the last time he had trained with Jace? When was the last time he went hunting with Jace, just the two of them? He couldn’t remember, and he didn’t like it. 

 

Jem and Will switched places, not missing a beat as they went on defensive, letting Emma and Julian try to get a few hits in. Emma was good, and she had managed to give Will a good smack on the leg at some point. Julian had gotten a hit on Jem as well, across the ribs with the flat of his blade. Will looked like he was about to jump, so Julian swung high but Will ducked at the last second, using his sword to knock Julian’s feet out from under him, and Julian found himself looking up a blade at the older Herondale. 

“Dead.” Will said, before moving the sword and pulling Julian to his feet. They watched Emma and Jem go back and forth, blocking and parrying, until finally Jem tossed something from his pocket and Emma slipped and fell flat. Jem smirked as Emma picked up what he had thrown from his pocket.

“Sea glass? Thats cheating!”

“All is fair in love and war.” Jem shrugged. “Besides, do you the enemy you’re fighting will fight fair?”

Jem reached a hand down to pull Emma to her feet, and she used the momentum to spin and throw Jem to the floor. It knocked the breath out of him for a second and blinked in confusion before grinning. Will was laughing at him, even as he walked over to pull Jem back to his feet. 

“Well played, Emma.” Jem said as he dusted himself off. 

 

Will was watching Jem, as if waiting for something. Jem looked at him, trying to figure out what he was waiting for, when Will grinned like a kid at Christmas. And Jem knew why. Finally, they could train and fight as hard as everyone else, and Jem wouldn’t need to take the drug. He wouldn’t break into coughing fits if he hit the ground too hard, and he start coughing up blood and collapsing. Finally, they no longer had to worry about if he took enough of the yin fen. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment. I have no one to talk to.


	4. Chapter 4

When it came time to portal back to LA, Will and Jem decided to stay in New York a little while longer. Their fastest and most reliable source of information on the investigation was Magnus Bane, and they didn’t want to be too far away from them. Also, Jem figured Will would appreciate the chance to see that Jace, despite his disbelief in demon pox, was one of the best shadowhunters in modern time and shared the fear of ducks. Emma and Jules needed to get back to LA to make sure that Mark didn’t burn the place down on accident. 

 

At the moment, Jem was dozing in a chair in the library. He had been talking with Will for several hours, reminiscing about their time as children in London, when the sunlight coming through the window along with the tea had lulled him into sleep. Will, knowing Jem had been up for most of the night worrying about Tessa, left him to sleep and decided to explore this modern institute and it’s strange technology. There was so much that he had never seen before. Electric stoves, lamps that turned on when you touched the base, a little device that could hold millions of books in one thin little screen, it was all so much. And the way these new shadowhunters did things. Working with downworlders the way they did, one of them was even  _ dating  _ a downworlder! But then again, it was a Lightwood. Will figured it must be a family thing. Demons, downworlders, somehow the Lightwoods managed to have relationships with both. What a strange time. Even stranger to Will was it was a male warlock with a male shadowhunter. Now, Will didn’t find anything necessarily  _ wrong  _ with this, but it had been very looked down upon when he was younger. To be gay was to be satan’s spawn in his time. Now it seemed people didn’t care as much. There were a lot of controversial things that were accepted now that had been considered horrific in his time. 

 

Then there was his descendant. Will hadn’t seen Jace since yesterday, though apparently it was because the boy was sick. However, as Will walked  by the one of the many rooms, he spotted Jace standing there with a scrawny boy with brown hair and glasses. Curious as to who this new person was, Will approached. The boy with brown hair had only a few runes, which lead Will to believe that either he was too weak to hold many runes or he was recently ascended. The boy spotted Will before Jace did and made a questioning face.

“Who are you?” He asked. Jace turned around and grinned, a spark of mischief in his eyes. 

“Simon, that’s Will. Robert’s little brother? The one who actually fathered Alec and Isabelle.” Jace said, rolling his eyes as if it was obvious. 

“Robert doesn’t have a little brother.” Simon looked confused. 

“Of course he does. I’m the little brother.” Will decided to play along. One could not simply pass up the chance to cause mischief. 

“But then why do Alec and Isabelle call Robert their dad?” Simon challenged. 

Will rolled his eyes this time. “ _ Because,  _ I had been in exile when I fathered them. Lake Lyn, ever heard of it? Apparently it’s illegal to do certains things near the water, if you know what I mean. Even worse when they catch you doing that there multiple times. So they kicked me out of Irdis, and it has only been recently after I offered up valuable information to the Clave that they welcomed me. And so, since I was welcomed back, I decided to come to New York to meet my children and show them that their real father isn’t as obnoxious as their uncle.” 

“That's why the marriage fell apart. Robert never truly loved her, but had to cover for his brother.” Jace concluded. 

 

Simon looked more confused than he had since starting this whole process of becoming a shadowhunter. “But you’re British-”

“The Lightwood family originally came from England. I went back there after being exiled.” Will shrugged. 

“Do Alec and Isabelle know yet?” Simon asked. “And what about Max? Was he yours too?”

“Of course they know.” Jace scoffed, then broke into a coughing fit. Once he got over it he continued. “Max really was Robert’s son. They figured they might as well try to make it seem like they actually loved each other and what better way than having a kid?”

 

Simon narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Then why hasn’t Isabelle told me about you yet?” He challenged. 

“Because maybe she isn’t sure how to respond to it yet?” Jace rolled his eyes. “It’s not everyday you find out the guy you thought was your father isn’t actually your father.”

 

That was ironic, coming from Jace Lightwood/Wayland/Morgenstern/Herondale. It may not have been every day that Jace found out his father wasn’t actually his father, but it had happened 3 times. More than the average kid with daddy-issues. 

“But I’m her boyfriend-”

“Boyfriend!” Will cut him off right there. “Well, I’m sure brother-dearest has gone on to threaten you about what will happen if you hurt her, but I’m going to do it again!” 

 

And so Will went off on a rant, the same rant he gave every man who his daughter Lucy had once brought home. The same one he had given his own son too, though his son had gotten a slightly different version but basically the same meaning. Will was pretty sure he was making Simon doubt his choice of words. Jace seemed to think this whole thing was great. What better way to bond with your ancestor than trick someone into believe something that isn’t true? It was pure gold! 

 

“Now, if you’ll excuse me I must go push James off the rafters in the training room.” Will finished, before turning on his heel and marching away dramatically. He was sure that Jem was actually still sleeping in the library, but he decided he should get away before Simon caught on to the lie. That would ruin it. 

 

_ In the Library… _

Jem was not still sleeping. He had woken up not long after Will had left, as if the feeling of his parabatai leaving the room had beens stronger than the will to stay asleep. He could tell however that where ever Will was, he wasn’t in danger and despite Will’s do-now-think-later personality, Jem knew he wasn’t dumb enough to leave the Institute alone in this city in this time period. That would not end well. So he stayed in the library, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his skin. Even after being mortal again for as long as he has, he still found the touch of the sun of wonderful feeling. As a Silent Brother, he had not been given the chance to really appreciate it. Now however, he could feel the warmth as well as he when he was young in London with Will or growing up in Shanghai with his parents. 

 

In his quiet peacefulness however, he could hear someone else come in the room. Looking up, he saw Alec walk into the room. Even still the resemblance between Alec and Will shocked Jem. So many generations between Cecily and Gabriel, and yet her genes still came up as boldly as ever. Alec seemed to have been looking for Jem, for he sped up when he spotted him and sat across from him on the couch. 

“I want to talk to you about Jace.” He stated without a greeting. 

“You know him better than I do.” Jem pointed out. What could he possibly tell Alec about his own parabatai? 

“Well, it’s kind of more about Will. And Jace. Herondales in general, I guess.” Alec corrected himself. “Jace didn’t know he was a Herondale until recently. But he mentioned last night that when you talked to you after the Heavenly fire thing, that you said you should’ve known. But how? He’s wondered about it but he won’t ask because he’s Jace. But I figured I’d ask for him.”

 

Jem smiled. “Herondales are….unique to say the least. How would you describe Jace?”

“Crazy.” Alec answered instantly. “Over confident and a little cocky. Sometimes he’s downright infuriating. He has a dramatic flair and he knows exactly how good he looks and how to use to his advantage. He always has something witty to say, can never sit still, and is more loyal than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“And you just described Will as well. I won’t go into the whole story, as thats not my story to tell, but when I first met Will, he was trying his very hardest to make me dislike him. When I told him I needed  a sparring partner he said, and I quote, ‘ But I need someone who can keep up with me, not some sickly creature that looks as if he’s doddering off to the grave. Although I suppose you might be useful for target practice.’.” Jem chuckled a little at the memory. “He was right, of course. I was dying, and I looked like it. But I showed him how to throw a knife and he made the exception for me. Everyone else...he thought everyone who loved him would die because he believed he was cursed. But since I was already dying, he thought that maybe the curse wouldn’t work on me.”

 

“To love is to destroy. Jace used to say that a  lot.” Alec could remember the first time he heard Jace say it, when they only boys and had just met. It had been the first time Alec had seen Jace unsure of something. 

 

“But no family has loved as wholly as the Herondales. For all Will’s claiming of going to brothels and drinking himself into oblivion, he was the most loyal parabatai I could’ve hoped for. Persistent too, the bastard. I was there when his children were born and when his children’s children were born. I watched the Herondales for generations, and they all loved so purely, and so many of them tried to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. And for whatever reason, Will’s fear of ducks was passed on. When Stephen died, I thought that was it. The Herondales were gone forever. But I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy to rid the world of them. They’re like some weed that grows on the surface of the earth and everyone who comes into contact with them is never the same again.” 

  
  


Alec snorted. “At least Jace isn’t the only one afraid of ducks then.”

 

It was at that moment that Will and Jace and had made their way into the library. 

“Ducks? What about the little devils?” Will asked, looking from Jem to Alec as if he thought they were plotting something.

“We were discussing how all your descendants inherited your irrational fear of ducks.” Jem stated,  “And I was plotting on finding a duck onesie for you.”

“It is a perfectly rational fear of ducks, and what the bloody hell is a onesie?” Will threw himself down besides Jem. 

“It’s a one-piece pajama that covers your feet. Some of them even have hoods.”

“I will sleep naked before I sleep in a duck. It’s not like I haven’t done it before.” 

 

“I can’t see the rationality about fearing ducks.” Alec interrupted. 

“Then let me explain it to you.” Will started dramatically. “When I was a young lad, there were ducks living outside in the pond by my house. I would go out and feed them, as any boy my age would. But then, one fateful day, I did not have enough bread for all of them. And one duck, a nasty beast, made it his life’s goal to kill me. He would wait outside for me to come out, and then he would bite me. I was a prisoner in my own house!” Will threw the back of his hand against his forehead as if this was the most tragic and dramatic story in the world. “And then, a few years later after I managed to get away from that duck, Jem and I were in Hyde park in London. We had poultry pies, and I told James to feed it to the ducks to see if they would eat it. I thought maybe we could breed an army of cannibal ducks. And those creatures...those horrible birds…. _ ate the poultry pie.  _ What sick creature eats it’s own kind?!”

 

“Several tribes of people practice cannibalism, Will.” Jem, ever the voice of reason, informed him.

“Sick creatures! You can eat the flesh of other species, but not the flesh of your own!” Will declared. “Anyway, I made sure my children and my grandchildren knew that ducks were not to be trusted. I had thought I had companionship with the those ducks outside my house, and they turned on me when I ran out of bread. And they eat other birds. It’s twisted.”

“Snakes eat other snakes. Pigs will eat other pigs if you let. And chickens will eat chicken-”

“Jem, I will barf all over you. Stop.” Will glared at him and Jem grinned. 

  
  


“Jace!” A woman’s voice yelled from somewhere outside the room. Jace winced. 

“What did you do?” Alec looked at Jace suspiciously. 

“May have told Simon that Will was your real father. We had a whole story made up and everything. It was great.” Jace shrugged. “Guess he mentioned it to Clary.”

Right on cue, Clary came into the room, glaring at Jace. “ _ Why  _ would you lie to Simon about who Will was?”

“I didn’t feel like explaining the whole story, because his tiny brain wouldn’t be able to handle it. So I improvised.”

“That’s not improvising!”

“Sure it is. I think it we made it quite believable.” Will nodded.

 

“You took part in this too?” Jem groaned. Of course Will would do something like that. Why would he even think for a minute that his parabatai would be innocent of such a thing? These were the Herondales they were talking about. 

  
  


_ Meanwhile in Chinatown… _

 

The pack had been lounging around lazily, as it was always quiet at this awkward time of the afternoon. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner, there were rarely any orders to fill and so the pack had very little to do. Most took this as a time to rest, take a nap, maybe make themselves a little something to eat. Regardless of what they were doing, not a single one had expected the attack that came. . Luke had been visiting the pack at the time. He would be lying to say he didn’t miss leading them, but he would never attack Maia and honestly, he didn’t want the whole responsibility of running the pack again. 

 

It came from out of nowhere. Faeries seem to melt from the shadows, lunging at the wolves with the silent grace and soulless killing that gave the Fair Folk their fear-inspiring reputation among older cultures. Luke felt himself changing before he could even think about it. It was close to the full moon, so of course the pull was stronger. Being attacked only made it harder to resist, kind of like how a vampire’s fangs will come out whenever they fight. Luke sang his own fangs into a faerie’s arm, pulling her away from the wolf she was attacking. Another faerie turned towards Luke and shot an arrow at him, the silver point grazing his muzzle. He shook his head, but didn’t let go and ended up ripping a piece of flesh from the faerie’s arm. He lunged for her again, but this time was yanked back by the tail. As he turned to go after the one who held it, another faerie grabbed his ears and soon he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them. They were all over him. 

 

Luke was pushed to the ground. He could feel sharp claws digging into him, feel the burn of silver. He could only watch as part of his former pack was slaughtered right in front of him, and there was nothing he could do. He fought as hard as he could to escape the fey, but it was no use. They pulled a sheet of silver over his face and tied it behind his head, and it burned. He yelped and tried to get it off, but there were too many on him and something was preventing him from changing back. He was stuck in his wolf form for now, and a piece of silver was tied to his face. 

 

A bell like laughter filled the room and a song began to sing, and the faeries disappeared as quickly as they came. And with their disappearing, came total blackness.


End file.
